


Revisiting The Cain Saga/Godchild

by Bemused_Writer



Series: Bemused's Meta, Theories, and Thoughts [3]
Category: Cain Saga and Godchild
Genre: Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-10
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-08-19 18:36:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20214385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bemused_Writer/pseuds/Bemused_Writer
Summary: Some meta and thoughts onThe Cain SagaandGodchildas I reread the series. Each chapter is about an individual volume.





	1. Volume 1

**Author's Note:**

> I've been wanting to reread several series now and I figured, why not write up some proper thoughts on them while I do so? Since this is AO3 I expect everyone here has already read _The Cain Saga_ but just in case I've rated it M because the series itself deals with some rather serious and difficult themes. These reviews are reposted from Tumblr.

This volume starts out with a one shot mystery following a character named Ariel. He works at a flower shop and promised Suzette, an aristocratic woman, he’d bring her some primroses. Unfortunately, it’s not to be: she passes soon after.  
  
Regardless, Ariel’s not our protagonist. Cain Hargreaves is and we meet him this chapter through Ariel’s eyes. Honestly, at first it’s a little puzzling why we’re seeing all of this from Ariel’s perspective instead of Cain’s but I believe this is so we get an idea of how the outside world views him before we see his own opinion on himself. 

He’s mysterious and rather edgy and he seems to glorify in that because it becomes swiftly apparent that society’s opinion of Earl Hargreaves isn’t very high–he’s gone and missed Suzette’s funeral, which appears to be a typical thing for him. She’s also his cousin, so there’s a family connection. In other words, his own family isn’t terribly fond of him and expects this kind of behavior.

While this is enough to make it seem like he’s a bit questionable we also quickly learn grave digging isn’t all that unusual for him either, which should give you some idea of how things are going to go in this series. 

He then proceeds to mock his aunt later, saying she was always horrible to Suzette. We’re not given nearly enough time with Suzette or her family to verify these claims but considering Suzette has come back from the dead to kill her I guess it’s safe to assume things weren’t great between them.

The whole thing is swiftly revealed to be a torrid love affair between Suzette, Ariel’s uncle, Miles, and a Miss Claremont. In other words, Miles was a cheater. But Suzette didn’t just wake up wanting revenge; her plan to fake her death made her mad as she was forced to contend with being buried in a coffin for hours.

Furthermore, Cain was in on the whole thing and was hoping to help her do it right, hence the grave digging. Also, he was the one who gave her the poison to help her fake her death, which is now being used to kill a bunch of people.

Insanity is a common theme in this series, especially when mixed with love, so it makes sense that we start with it right away. Pulling a Romeo and Juliet proved to be a terrible idea though.

After going insane, she starts killing people including Miles, her would-be Romeo.

But the really pertinent part of all of this (at least for Cain) is the revelation that Cain himself loved Suzette.

Love becomes a very prominent them in this series and the fact that the very first person we see Cain admit to loving is his insane cousin who stages her death for the sake of romance only to come back and kill everyone who did her wrong is, uh, telling.

So, the first chapter is honestly pretty straightforward but it gives us some information that is going to be crucial later on: Cain doesn’t have a good relationship with his extended family, he’s not a stranger to “forbidden love” (loving your cousin in a romantic sense was hardly uncommon in the 19th century but I still count it as “forbidden” here because she had no idea how he felt), he’s associated enough with poisons that his extended family comes to him for help faking their deaths, and, while it’s brief, we see he has a servant that seems to stick close to his side.

Honestly, I wish we’d learned a little more about Suzette. As it is we only know she was super determined and, according to Cain, always had to have her way. I suppose that gives us a basis for the kind of person he likes but not a great deal more.

And with that out of the way we’re moving on to chapter 2! This one starts out from Cain’s perspective, so it already feels like a more “proper” beginning to the series. And one page in we see that Cain has some serious Sherlock Holmes tendencies:

Riff isn’t paid enough for this.

Anyway, Cain definitely isn’t overly concerned with treating animals well (although he claims the hen will be fine) and his servant, Riff, whom we saw in the last chapter, is apparently already used to this kind of behavior and has all but given up on expecting things to be any different. He’s definitely the Watson of the piece (except that he’s also a butler).

This mystery is another family based one–Cain seems to have a constantly revolving door of relatives. In this instance it’s his uncle Leland who asks him to look into a letter he received from his deceased daughter, Maddy, whom Cain admits to not ever noticing much.

The shadow in question was Bibi, his uncle Leland’s illegitimate daughter that he had with a prostitute and it’ ultimately Bibi that we see Cain really grow attached to. 

Maddy didn’t seem to think too highly of Cain after all:

And the feeling was apparently mutual.

This is an important scene for Cain down the road though because we eventually learn just how much he’s suffered in his own life. For him to say he can’t stand other people who wallow in self-pity it means he doesn’t allow it for himself either. It means he doesn’t allow himself to consider his own sorrow and that’s a difficult thing to maintain.

At any rate, while Cain has done a lot of questionable things in this volume so far, the one area he’s shown to be chivalrous in is he doesn’t take advantage of Bibi even though she’s a prostitute herself just like her mother. Even though he paid for her time he doesn’t demand sexual compensation and instead admits their similarities: neither of them had parents who loved them. Bibi was never loved by her father, Leland, and her mother is cold to her as well.

This statement could have easily come from Cain himself. While the ultimate resolution of this particular story is one I’m unsure how to feel about, it parallels Cain’s own life quite well, though we aren’t supposed to know that just yet.

The twist of the story boils down to “Bibi” was actually “Maddy” all along and Bibi was the one who died and while Leland _was_ contacted by his daughter it was a daughter who had been hypnotized by his ex-mistress to kill him for mistreating the real Bibi. And before you think Leland’s had it rough, he wanted to marry his daughter, Maddy, and that is why he stopped being a playboy.

…There’s a lot to take in there but we don’t have time to unpack all that but there are some tidbits of information that will be relevant later.

Maddy was an aristocrat who was forced to demean herself through prostitution just to survive and she had a father who desired her sexually. In other words, it was an abusive relationship between parent and child even though this element of the story doesn’t really get touched on much. Maddy was also taken advantage of by Bibi’s mother.  
  
The similarity is that Cain was also demeaned and abused by his parents and this is already being alluded to pretty early in the series. It’s also becoming apparent that it’s not just Cain’s immediate relatives who are problematic (something this volume has yet to even touch on really) but his extended family seems cursed as well. Is it a message about the aristocracy or just this bloodline? We’ll have to wait and see.

Another important element to this story is we also see that Riff is one of Cain’s only constants in his life and that he supports him quietly but firmly. He doesn’t say anything accusative after Cain reveals he ultimately killed Maddy. He did it because it was the only kind thing left to do and it was at her own behest. It’s a cruel revelation: the only way he can be kind is by being cruel.

The third story is … interesting for sure but unless I’m seriously missing something here, it doesn’t seem to feature Cain at all…? I suppose one interpretation could be he was undercover years ago at a boarding school but that seems like it would be stretching it. Still, the themes very much fit in with _The Cain Saga_: failed attempts at immortality, the abuse of the weak by the strong, and things of that nature.

The fourth story also doesn’t feature Cain at all but the themes of one person replacing another and fame corrupting fits in with the series. I would say more but, to be honest, neither of these stories give us a lot to interpret regarding Cain or the other primary characters in the series. In this particular story there’s a running thread of homophobia, which I suppose could be argued as fitting in with the forbidden love theme but I feel that’s a little tenuous at best. This is kind of an unusual thing to do in a series. I wonder if, originally, this wasn’t going to be about Cain but more of an exploration of themes? Hmm…  
  
With the fifth chapter we’re back to Cain (and the 19th century…) and we’re thrown in the thick of it right away with Cain accusing a man of killing his brother, and Cain’s friend, Cleo.  
  
This is a very short story but it emphasizes that Cain is … not always that kind, although ultimately he was trying to avenge Cleo. He tricks Orlando into thinking he has poisoned him (a legitimate threat considering we have already gotten it confirmed he’s well known for poisons in general) and Orlando ultimately kills himself. 

Once again, I would really have liked to know more about Cleo. How close were they? Later in the series it feels like Cain doesn’t have any friends at all but this points out that isn’t the case.

Riff hasn’t gotten a lot of focus this volume either but his quiet presence is notable in how it’s one of the few consistent things throughout for Cain.

Anyway, this is a bit of a rough start to the series but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit! The gothic vibe is excellent, of course, and the conundrums presented are interesting to sort through. Since it’s been so long since I read I’ll admit I’d forgotten a lot of details but I’m looking forward to relearning them. ^^ I hope to get a review up of volume 2 soon.


	2. Volume 2

Volume 2 really gets off to a much more solid start than volume 1 primarily because it’s actually focusing on our main characters, their backstories, and what makes them tick.  
  
I’m very excited to see Mary Weather once more; she’s Cain’s half sister and she excels at fortune telling. Upon meeting Cain, she tells his fortune. She says: “This card [The Hanged Man] refers to a man who will bring sorrow and suffering into your life. I also see that there will be… three victims. And this is your fate card. It’s death. […] You’re going to die soon.”

Cain’s reaction to this is kind of great but Riff’s is especially perfect:

No, not generally considered funny at all.

Now, I have to say, Mary Weather appears to interpret tarot cards very differently from me. XD Or maybe Japan just has different associations in general but The Hanged Man isn’t necessarily a negative card and neither is Death. Fiction often does a poor job portraying tarot, though… 

The Hanged Man usually means something along the lines of a perspective shift (because he’s upside down), going down the less beaten path, etc. while Death shows the end of one thing and the beginning of something new. In other words, an intense change of some kind. Now, I don’t know what spread Mary Weather was doing (and it obviously wasn’t considered important to the plot) but I would love to know where she’s getting some of this from. I mean, she could just be genuinely psychic and the cards are just for show. That might actually be what’s happening; it’s been too long and I can’t quite recall.   
  
But if I had to hazard a guess (and I’m going to because I find this fascinating) I would say the first card was “what is around you” while the second card, as she says, is his fate card.  
  
If I’d been doing the interpreting I would have assumed something more along the lines of The Hanged Man represents someone around Cain who will make him reevaluate how he views things/force him to alter his habits (could easily be any number of the villains that constantly plague him) and as for the fate card , Death, I would have said that he had to let something go (most likely his past) in order to make peace with the present. He’s holding something back, change is on the horizon, etc.  
  
…I guess what I’m saying is that if you’re going to bring tarot into a story be prepared for anyone who actually uses tarot to judge your interpretations of the cards. XD  
  
Anyway, as far as the story itself is concerned, Mary Weather is right on the money. Three people die in this short story (including her friend) and as for Cain’s fate card… well, it remains to be seen. Either way, he decides to take care of Mary Weather and brings her back with him.  
  
Also, it’s a relatively minor detail, but we learn that his father had affairs. We learn a lot more about his father in the very next chapter and it appears that his having affairs was the least alarming thing about him.

There’s also one more thing about Mary Weather’s prediction that I want to point out:

It would be easy to say this was referencing this chapter only but that’s not the case and Mary Weather’s prediction will only become more pertinent as the series goes on.

But before that, the final section of this chapter drives home a point that the previous volume was trying to make as well: self-sacrifice is the truest expression of love. As far as this series is concerned, if you love someone, you’ll prove it by dying for them. 

The second chapter is the one that really gets to the heart of the series as a whole: Cain, his father, Alexis Hargreaves, and Riff. It’s really weird seeing Riff and Alexis speaking with one another amicably and it only gets stranger as Riff learns how cruel Alexis really is. Up to this point, we haven’t really had a reason to think much of Riff; he seems loyal to Cain and he seems to be a good butler. That’s literally all we know about him. But knowing how loyal he is to Cain only makes it more surreal as he stands by as Alexis whips his child’s back. Riff is horrified, of course, but he doesn’t really do anything aside from wonder why Cain still thinks his father loves him.

Honestly, I know whipping a child was a far more common punishment at this point in time but considering he’s being whipped hard enough it’s leaving scars on his back, reminiscent of how brutal a slave’s punishment might be around this time period, you’d think Riff would be a little more concerned, especially since we just learned Riff was at one point training to be a doctor.  
  
Of course, there’s a possible reason for why he isn’t but I’ll get back to that around when we get into _Godchild_….  
  
Anyway, the reason Cain trusts Riff is pretty straightforward: Riff was kind to him when he was a child (he was 12 in this chapter, which would put Riff at 23), he acknowledged his presence when other servants wouldn’t, and he swears to stay at his side, always. Cain has no reason not to trust Riff when he’s done more for him than any other adult in his life has. I will point out, that while I’m going to assume this changes at some point, as a child Cain seemed to view Riff a bit like a possession, which is a decidedly aristocratic opinion. Riff doesn’t do anything to dissuade him of this notion, which seems to indicate they’re both very much of their time and status.  
  
Also, Riff was told Cain was somewhat strange by Alexis. When he finally meets Cain, he acts very strangely (“You can see me?”) and promptly faints in his arms but this is what he thinks:

You don’t find this strange? XD Twenty-three-year-old Riff wasn’t as with it as present-day Riff….

Now, why does Riff stay with Cain? He’s intrigued by him, that much we know for sure, and he wants to care for someone who has been so badly mistreated. Both of these reasons make sense but there is a final statement made by Riff that raises some questions:

You only exist to serve him? You’ve only met him!

But if you combine it with what Alexis said earlier in this panel here:

It’s all looking pretty sinister. 

At the end of the chapter, Riff accidentally draws a tarot card from Mary Weather’s deck. We don’t see which one it is (and I can’t remember if it’s ever revealed) but considering what I do remember about the series I would guess he drew something like The Tower (chaos, destruction, shaken beliefs, etc.) or possibly The Moon (the shadow self, hidden depths, etc.) but that would be with my interpretations of the cards and, as we saw earlier, those do not match up with the manga’s. 8D  
  
Now, Cain’s father appears to die in this chapter but he, along with Cain’s mother, are used as an explanation for why Cain’s life is so cursed. In short, Alexis had a wife but the only woman he ever “loved” was his sister, Augusta. He forced himself on her and so she had Cain. The whole ordeal drove her mad and Cain only met her twice in his life at the asylum. The second time she saw Cain drove her to kill herself by jumping through a window because he looked like Alexis. On her deathbed she finally recognized him for who he actually was and she warned him to get away from Alexis, that her death would only make him worse. This is also when Cain realizes the truth of his heritage, which was hinted at pretty strongly this whole chapter:

  


And this isn’t the first time a woman went mad around young Cain. The woman he thought was his mother (Alexis’s actual wife) blamed him for his father’s distant attitude toward her and she tried to kill him with a scythe. Where did she find a scythe, you ask? I have no idea. Maybe this is the kind of thing people just had on hand back then for the occasional head-lopping. (And yes, I know farmers use them to cut wheat but … they weren’t farmers.)

Present day Cain sometimes sounds a little sexist (“Why do girls love to do such impractical things?”) but considering that’s about as bad as it ever gets with him and considering how easily his perceptions would have been influenced by his past… I’d say we’re doing pretty good.  
  
Now, when Alexis tries to kill Cain for “murdering” Augusta, he makes an interesting remark: “You took the only person I loved from me. Now you’ll see what that feels like, Cain!”  
  
He’s pointing the gun at Riff, the person he mentioned earlier was the only person who could “tame” Cain. It’s pretty early in the series and his words could be meaningless but we already know Cain trusts Riff, so there could be some truth there. His father also says, “You’ll go through life unloved and die alone.” I suppose we’ll see if that turns out to be true or not.  
  
But now we’ve gotten to see why Cain trusts Riff and, to a lesser degree, why Riff stays at his side despite how dangerous that actually is and we have some very good reasons to dislike Alexis.  
  
The third chapter is … well, it tells us a little something about Cain, I suppose but it’s largely just a murder mystery.  
  
Cain is meeting up with another friend (I honestly don’t remember him having this many friends. So far they’ve all ended up dead or insane, though, so maybe that’s why…). This one is named Professor Lambert and his wife dislikes Cain, which seems to just be a common attitude towards Cain as we saw in volume 1. In this case, her issue with him is that his main hobby is the use of poisons, and I guess that is kind of a weird hobby. He’s also kind of rude to her to boot, so…  
  
Anyway, her husband, Lambert, makes a comment early on that already had me disliking him:

He’s awfully cavalier about the fact that the second Cain comes to visit a girl dies. His inquiry about Riff also strikes me as odd; aristocrats did not much care about servants and I doubt they would have been asking about them. This goes to show that Riff is at Cain’s side so constantly that to see him without is odd (Riff is largely absent in this chapter). He also asks about Mary Weather. It’s noteworthy that Cain doesn’t answer any of his questions whatsoever and simply discusses his wife’s disliking of him.  
  
Anyway, the theme of this chapter is, once again, perverted love. In this case, Professor Lambert is a pedophile and he’s the one who killed the girl at the beginning of the chapter, Elsie. Cain kills him using poison as he explains how he deduced everything and that the only reason he came was because he was hoping Mary Weather could meet Elsie. Apparently, they were friends at some point.  
  
So, Mary Weather now has two dead friends (she doesn’t know about this one though) and all of Cain’s acquaintances are bad. I’m also not sure how I felt about Elsie’s portrayal in this story. Lambert killing her is being framed as definitely bad but their relationship itself is kind of just … acknowledged, which seems like a weird way of handling something like that.

So, the main thing we’ve learned regarding Cain is he just wants to spoil Mary Weather. He wanted to find her a friend, failed, bought her some kind of present instead. I guess that’s nice…? 

Also, Cain smokes:

We see more of indulgent/protective big brother Cain in the next chapter. When Mary Weather admits knowledge of a grisly murder and says a servant told her, this is his reaction:

Riff is clearly exasperated; he probably knows Mary Weather is going to find this stuff out regardless, but he’ll do as Cain asks. It also begs the question: how many people have been fired for this sort of thing?

As for Cain, he apparently wants to preserve Mary Weather’s innocence. Considering his own childhood, I think I understand why.  
  
I think it might be too late, though, judging by the Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes she shares with Cain when he admits no one taught him any (and, you know, the time she spent having to live on her own).

That is the face of a man who is only now realizing children’s stories are deranged.

I feel like Cain is behaving out of character compared to what we saw of him before at the actual ball, though. 

There’s a woman at the ball he goes to named Gladys who is married. She didn’t go to the ball with her husband, so everyone things she’s available. Cain knows she’s married, she hits on him, and the two go upstairs for some “activities” but she suddenly stops them.

I suppose Cain isn’t really protesting exactly; possibly he’s trying to warn her about the ignoble nature of other men, but it seems odd to have this after we see how much he _didn’t_ push Bibi despite literally paying her for her services: 

I don’t have a problem with Cain being promiscuous or anything but I think there could have been a better way of demonstrating the fact. This kind of tone is such a typical trope of shoujo manga from the era that I’m not sure if we’re supposed to be reading this deeply into it, however…

But Gladys does explain her behavior regardless and I just … I’m not sure this is sound logic. XD

I understand wanting to confirm whether you’re a sleepwalking murderer, but seducing other men to do it seems like quite the extra mile.

I should probably clarify that the whole dilemma of this chapter is that she does, in fact, think she’s a sleepwalking murderer due to how she keeps hearing a nursery song and then someone winds up dead while she sleeps.  
  
Regardless, Cain gets caught up in the whole thing and gets to know both Gladys and her husband, Radcliff.

…And Cain has gone from seducing the wife to hitting on the husband.

I don’t think he’s prepared for that, Cain…  
  
Also, _Kuroshitsuji_ has been compared to this series before (and quite understandably) but this panel really drives home the similarities to me:

A young(er) aristocrat, lounging about, as the servant reads off some details about a murder mystery, and they solve it together? The aristocrat comes from a cursed family? The butler is weirdly good at everything? I mean…? Toboso must have read this. The main difference is that while Toboso dances around the dark subjects in her manga (for the most part; certain arcs are more blatant) Kaori Yuki will just flat out tell you all the horrible things happening.  
  
I think this story has the most sympathetic characters so far, though. Gladys and her husband, Radcliff, are both a bit ditzy and a lot of fun because of it. But seeing as this is _The Cain Saga_ no one can remain happy for long. In short, Radcliff was actually the murderer and he did it because he was being confronted by noblemen who had used him in his youth (it’s kept somewhat vague but it was almost certain sexual abuse). Gladys is shocked that her husband would kill anyone and because of that short shock/rejection, he kills himself.  
  
I think this is the first time we see Cain actually regret getting involved in a case. He says to Riff: “Everyone has scars that they would rather die than let their loved ones see." 

He’s speaking of Radcliff’s physical scars, of course, but also the emotional ones left from abuse. He is also referring to the exact same duality in himself. He has physical scars but it’s the emotional ones he really doesn’t want anyone to know about. He understands the pain Radcliff was going through all too well and can see himself in him. He never meant for Gladys to wind up a widow either. He was trying to solve a murder mystery but in this case the men being targeted deserved to die.   
  
I think this is also the first time we see Cain dealing with people that aren’t related to him or a previous acquaintance in any way.  
  
The last chapter of this volume is pretty short but it shows us how Cain’s extended family dealt with Alexis’s death and the fact someone needed to take care of Cain. In short, they dealt with it badly! One of Cain’s cousins, Andrew, attempted to kill him the previous night. It came about because Cain overheard he embezzles from the Hargreaves treasury.  
  
However, it turns out it wasn’t Cain who died but an unnamed friend of his he’d switched clothes with beforehand.

This raises so many questions and no answers are offered. Did he intend for this friend to die? Did he intend to take him from the orphanage and adopt him…? And why is this "first friend” never mentioned again? How did they even meet?  
  
But the woman who killed him is given justice; Cain kills her in turn.  
  
…The aristocracy is unpleasant.  
  
And that wraps up volume 2! I really enjoyed this one. The stories are a lot stronger overall and they all focus on Cain in some way, which makes for a much more consistent tone. 


	3. Chapter 3

Before we get into this volume I just want to let you all know that I had it all written already and then my computer crashed. Thus, this is the rewrite but hopefully it will be better than what came before. 8D

Also, typical warning for the series: it is rated “Explicit” for its themes. Please bear that in mind as you read the review. Also, there are just tons of spoilers here. For my previous reviews, you can find Volume 1 [here](https://bemused-writer.tumblr.com/post/186904421984/the-cain-saga-vol-1) and Volume 2 [here.](https://bemused-writer.tumblr.com/post/186948563014/the-cain-saga-vol-2)

The next thing I want to talk about is the glory of this volume cover:

Look at how exceptionally 90s this thing is. The baggy clothes, the overabundance of wrinkles, the broad shoulders, the poses. It’s incredible. There is the _slight _problem that, if I didn’t know this story took place in the 19th century, I would probably just assume it took place in the 90s or possibly even the 80s. It has a very Anne Rice vibe to it.

Speaking of Anne Rice, those streams of blood on Cain aren’t just for decoration: vampires are very much our theme this volume. As a brief analysis of the cover (outside of its 90s glory) I will point out that while Cain has been bitten by a vampire (a physical representation of corruption or lost innocence) he is also wearing a cross, indicative of an attempt at preventing this from happening on his part. Yet despite his efforts at keeping himself pure he is still brought back to his curse.

A minor thing: in _The Cain Saga _Cain is shows as having light brown hair for the most part, or at least light brown highlights. This changes in _Godchild _where he’s almost exclusively shown as having black hair. This is probably just a stylistic change but we could also interpret it as his life getting darker the further he goes.

And finally, a note on the title of the volume, “Kafka.” I haven’t talked about this at all in the previous two reviews, but each volume has a loose theme. In the first one it was “Forgotten Juliet,” a reference to Suzette who tried to win over her Romeo (and failed). The second volume’s theme is nursery rhymes, which is used primarily to demonstrate the loss of innocence and a corrupted childhood. This volume references Franz Kafka, who was known for his surrealist writings that included themes of losing one’s humanity and things of that nature.

And now into the volume itself. I talked a bit about how Riff is someone Cain trusts implicitly in the last volume and the beginning of this one goes out of its way to reiterate that once more. Upon waking up from a nightmare about his father where he’s led to freedom by someone’s hand, wondering whose it could be we see this:

The implication being it’s Riff that leads him out of darkness and back to the light. However, there’s someone to the left trying to overshadow him, and that’s something that this volume really takes a look at: What if Riff wasn’t so trustworthy? What if someone tried to take his place? 

The doctor, who introduces himself as “Allen” but who we will refer to as Disraeli <strike>because that’s who he is</strike> immediately inserts himself into Cain’s life and insists he needs to go to the countryside to restore his health. I’ve always enjoyed this bit of Victorian advice. Have you been ill for weeks? You need to breathe some better air. Honestly, that was probably somewhat true all things considered; smog was a force to be reckoned with.

Disraeli tries to assist Cain with his clothes but he refuses and Mary Weather considers this:

We already know from the previous volume that Cain bears horrible scars on his back from his father’s beatings. This is something he does his hardest to hide from everyone, including Mary Weather. The only person he doesn’t make any attempt to shun in this regard is Riff, who already knows all about it.

Cain ultimately goes to the countryside just as Disraeli suggested and one thing I’m happy to see is how much Cain cares about his little sister, Mary Weather.

  


Cain has a lot of iffy moments in the series where you really question his opinions and mindset but I’m happy to report that his relationship with Mary Weather is always a source of happiness and remains untainted by all the other crazy things that go on around him (as much as that’s possible, that is).

The trip to the countryside quickly goes awry when night falls when Cain discovers a woman who can only be described as a vampire:

Even as he manages to escape her, he’s attacked by an unidentified assailant upon reaching home whom he leaves a scratch on.

And this is where we start to see why Riff’s honesty is being questioned this volume. Was he the one who attacked Cain at night? Who is the vampire?

Personally, I got a kick out of reading Kaori Yuki’s author’s notes on fan reactions to all of this. Apparently, Disraeli was not popular and she was confused as to why everyone was judging him so harshly when he hadn’t done anything wrong. (This is even more amusing when we get to the end only to discover fans were right.) Furthermore, Riff fans were apparently very unhappy with him being “replaced” with Disraeli and that Riff was being portrayed in a negative light whatsoever. It sounds like Yuki had her hands full with keeping fans content. XD

Fans were also unhappy with Cain’s “player” tendencies this volume (there were some dissatisfied readers! XD). The next morning, Cain meets a boy named Dirk who owns Witherby Castle and swiftly meets his sister, Justine, as well. Turns out, Justine looks exactly like the vampire from the other night. The only difference is that while the vampire was bloodthirsty and appeared to be something of a seductress, Justine is sweet and innocent.

I don’t think there’s a single reader who believes she’s actually innocent of the whole affair and that it’s only made more difficult when you realize she’s so delicate she can’t bear to look at mirrors or be under the sun.

…Yeah, sounds like a vampire.

Cain thought so, too, and decided to test his theory in such a way that led to the fan complaints I mentioned earlier:

She doesn’t immediately try to murder him or drink his blood. She has a very bashful reaction instead, so we can safely assume she is not a vampire (except no one is assuming that).

Cain notes she had a faint scar on her face, which doesn’t completely match the vampire from before. Half of her face had suffered extreme burn marks, so once again there is some difference between Justine and the vampire from before.

He promises to meet her again but I personally think the above panel has Cain looking a great deal more like how he’ll look in _Godchild, _which is the main reason I’ve included it.

At any rate, her brother is outraged at what Cain has done and immediately asks his sister whether they’ll be together forever or not with an insistence that can only be described as “odd.”

I think I’ve mentioned before in my VNC reviews somewhere that vampires are basically always used to explore something forbidden, especially when it comes to love and this story is no exception. I will point out that Yuki doesn’t really need an excuse to explore forbidden love, but having vampires involved increases the chances that she will by a lot. Needless to say, we’re about to get into some uncomfortable territory.

We see Riff behaving oddly once more by discarding Mary Weather’s hat. He rushes home, she’s fine, but he and Riff have a revealing conversation:

Now, I’m just going to let you all know that they are both, technically, acting right now. They both suspect Disraeli, but they’re going along with things and they’re putting on a performance to make it look like Cain is losing faith in Riff.

However, the amount of truth in this statement as well as the relevance of it all in _Godchild _is immense. I’ll get more into that when we actually reach _Godchild _but suffice it to say for now that Cain relies on Riff to an almost unhealthy degree and if anything truly threatened that we would see something very different from this.

Also, I just want to point out once more that you can really see some parallels between Cain and Riff with Ciel and Sebastian from _Kuroshitsuji. _I would genuinely be shocked if Toboso hadn’t read this series previously. There are some noteworthy differences though: Ciel and Sebastian have a far more confrontation relationship where the master/servant dynamic is largely a facade. Sebastion will win in the end, after all, so in many ways they’re equals but there’s no love lost between them, no matter how much Ciel relies on him and orders him to never lie. With Cain and Riff things are a lot softer: it’s a relationship built on genuine trust and affection but the master/servant dynamic is also a great deal more real as well. Riff is a servant and Cain is an aristocrat. It’s hard to separate them from their roles unlike with Sebastian and Ciel. Still, Cain’s need for Riff to be there and to be loyal to him is just as genuine as Ciel’s.

Getting back to the volume at hand, Justine and Mary Weather prove to be fast friends and suddenly Cain and co. are moving into the castle. Needless to say, Dirk is furious. Furthermore, the amount of people being attacked by that vampire is only increasing and paranoia is mounting.

Disraeli himself sees something strange:

Riff appears to be with a vampiric woman himself. Disraeli thinks of how terrifying her eyes are and proceeds to find Cain, telling him of what he saw. Cain refuses to believe Riff would ever betray him (understandably given he’s in on it) but the exchange he and Disraeli share is important:

The meaning behind what Disraeli is saying is extremely layered. On the first, he’s accusing Riff of being untrustworthy and of that he’s not looking after Cain out of the goodness of his heart but out of something far more malicious. On the second, Disraeli is referring to what he himself is doing: he’s getting closer and closer to Cain, Cain is “trusting” him, and doesn’t realize he’s only there to bring more pain. The third layer is by far the most nefarious and is only truly revealed in _Godchild, _so I won’t discuss it here just yet.

Cain goes to meet with Justine once more, gives her an earring (one that the vampire had dropped previously, I believe) and departs but her brother, Dirk, is in high dudgeon and it’s revealed that he loves Justine and is jealous of how interested she is in Cain. She refuses him and he says, “Have you really forgotten that night? I was the one who protected you from Father!” He follows up with, “It’s not fair! You forget everything in the daytime, Justine!”

We’re finally starting to sort out what is going on here. Their father has been mysteriously absent, there are rumors of a vampire who was burned at the stake, and there had been a fire earlier on.

Things come to a head with Riff and Cain dismisses him from his employ. He then finally meets the vampire once again, who claims her name is Gertrude.

She notes that his eyes mark him as someone who is just as cursed as they and she offers him eternal life. If he’s going to be cursed, why not get to live forever? And Cain is tempted by the idea. We don’t get to see what his ultimate decision would have been as Disraeli bursts in and chases her away with a cross.

Still, I can’t help but wonder. I don’t think Cain would have accepted. He despises himself for his cursed lineage and views his own existence as a sin. In order to prolong his life in the way Gertrude is suggesting he would have to kill more and more people, thus making his life even more cursed than it was before. I don’t think he could bear that, and so I think he would have refused her.

Afterwards he’s comforted by Disraeli and they have another layered conversation:

On one hand, Cain is telling the truth. He doesn’t like people seeing through him and it’s part of why he goes to such pains to conceal how much pain he endures. But he’s also not being wholly honest; he’s nearly always allowed Riff the privilege of both these things. As for Disraeli, he’s also being honest about watching Cain, but it’s hardly out of the caring concern of a doctor. 

Meanwhile, Mary Weather is confronting Riff about leaving. She insists if he only asked, Cain would take him back. That is certainly true if he were actually leaving. But Riff needs to make his departure convincing and so this is what he tells Mary Weather: “Until now I’ve been everything for Lord Cain. I was his mother and his father. We’ve strengthened our bond without even using words.”

He’s laying it pretty thick here but there’s still a lot of truth to it. There would have to be in order for it to be even slightly convincing. Riff _is _everything to Cain as we’ve talked about before. He’s been there when no one else was. Without him, Cain would be lost.

When Cain next meets with Justine, she begs him to take her away because her brother is looking at her with evil eyes. Cain’s response is a little, uh, not helpful:

Here’s the thing, Cain is not the right person to be talking to about this. He has no idea what a normal relationship even is and as far as he’s concerned, running off with him is not freeing yourself from a cursed relationship.

It would be easy to say he’s thinking of his father and the incestuous relationship he had with his sister that led to Cain’s birth but this appears to be on a different level. Cain isn’t in the habit of defending his father’s horrendous choices in life.

After Dirk reveals the truth of Justine to her (which we’ll talk about momentarily) he and Cain discuss things and it becomes clear why Cain was so particular about what Justine said:

It turns out Suzette wasn’t simply his cousin. I’ll be honest, I completely forgot that tidbit. All I can say is that it’s been awhile since I read this…

At any rate, Cain is admitting he is in no position to be judging Dirk. However, the fact that Cain thinks he’s as bad as his father goes to show how deep his self-loathing is and how much he isn’t considering the entirety of the situation because it honestly isn’t the same. 1) Cain had no idea Suzette was his half-sister until after she’d died. Alexis knew perfectly well what he was doing. 2) Alexis forced himself on Augusta. Cain did no such thing to Suzette.

Cain’s love for Suzette is better likened to Oedipus than to Alexis: he tried really hard to avoid incest but the gods (Yuki) just wouldn’t let him live in peace.

Cain also says “It’s no use. If I’m not related by blood to the woman I’m not capable of loving her. I don’t know how to love.” He declares that he and Dirk both need salvation.

The thing is, Cain doesn’t actually know this for a fact. He’s had multiple flings but he’s never actually stayed in a relationship where he’s in love and his partner loves him in turn. He’s despairing and thinks he knows how things have to be but the fact is he doesn’t.

Honestly, the lack of Riff in this volume becomes pronounced around this point. There’s no one there to try to offer an alternative explanation to Cain or to try to get him to look at things from a different angle. He’s left to his own devices and that means he reaches the worst conclusions possible. 

Anyway, going back to what Dirk revealed, it turns out their stepfather had been abusing Justine and had put her through some kind of dark ritual in an attempt to bring Gertrude to life. In other words, another personality was superimposed over her own.

What I don’t like about this is how the narrative kind of frames this as Justine’s fault. She was the one who manipulated Dirk into killing their stepfather (rather understandably, I’d say!) and she was supposedly the one who seduced Dirk. Furthermore, it’s implied she was the one in control of their stepfather as well. Dirk definitely accuses her as if it’s her fault and Cain doesn’t exactly help. Of course, Cain’s perspectives are so skewed as to be useless in this situation, so…

Regardless, it’s implied that she was never a vampire (which I suppose I could believe) but that this was her true self coming through (which I find much harder to believe).

Ultimately, she and her brother burn to death after she goes on a rampage. It’s hard not to feel bad for both of them despite the awkward way this whole thing has been framed. They were both abused by their stepfather and never given a chance to remake their lives. They were trapped from start to finish.

Cain is understandably upset but when Disraeli comes to “comfort” him it’s revealed at long last what he really is: a soul catcher from Delilah. He also reveals he was the one who set the whole thing up along with their stepfather:

Just as Disraeli goes to remove Cain’s eyes, Riff finally makes his reappearance and everything comes to light once and for all:

They “kill” Disraeli and learn a few things from him as well:

Alexis is still alive and Delilah is an organization he’s a part of. Cain tells Riff never to leave him again and we get an idea of just how hard this has been. He’s been without Riff for a long period of time now and he’s witnessed two siblings die during it. 

On a lighter note, I enjoyed seeing Riff explain to Mary Weather how he was lying:

Up till now I would have assumed he had no sense of humor but clearly I was mistaken. XD He’s teasing her terribly! It’s also revealed that the vampire Riff had been with earlier had been Cain the whole time, which makes things a lot more amusing as well. Lastly, it’s revealed Disraeli survived, which isn’t all that surprising.

Anyway, that wraps the volume up, and what a volume it was! Rather than tackle multiple short stories, this one had one big story! I enjoyed that it was one story that tackled a lot of things relevant to the plot but there were a few points that could have been smoothed out, notably how harshly everyone was in judging Justine compared to Dirk. 

The Kafka reference is also a little clearer: neither sibling felt human anymore and Cain hasn’t for a while now. While it’s too late for Dirk and Justine, it isn’t yet for Cain. Perhaps we will see him make some progress in the next two volumes.


End file.
